398 
Psidium guajava (guava.) Blanco ** to the contrary notwithstanding, 
this plant is believed to have been introduced from Mexico, its original 
home. The facts that it has no native name and that it is never found 
where the original vegetation has been undisturbed, certainly constitute 
strong evidence in favor of its exotic nature. The guava is well 
fitted for distribution. The edible, fleshy fruit is well filled with very 
small seeds which, when eaten by hogs, birds, ete., pass through the 
intestines undigested. In this way they may gain an early entrance 
into abandoned clearings. They are even found scattered through farms 
which are still in a state of cultivation. Such clearings early come to 
have a “guava” aspect. The tree sprouts freely, and if it is cut for fuel, 
new shoots are produced. Types of parang, which show no places where 
the vegetation has entirely been removed do not have the guava, but a 
partial removal of the vegetation intermixes the other types with that 
of the guava. Other species will also soon invade clearings from which 
all the vegetation has been removed, and then will join the guava in 
forming the new growth. In this way large tracts of land have come to 
be occupied by the guava mixed with the species of the other parangs. 
On the reserve there are all stages in the development of clearings. 
An enumeration of the species will be only a repetition of those 
already given. Groups of other cultivated trees which show the former 
condition are scattered through the guava parang. Thus isolated indi- 
viduals or groups of Mangifera indica (mango), Anacardium occidentale 
(cashew), Artocarpus integrifolia (jack fruit), bananas, papaya, Ceiba 
pentandra, Areca catechu, and in one case Cocos nucifera were found 
scattered through the various stages in the development of a parang. 
Mention has already been made of the place in the vegetation of the 
building bamboo (Bambusa blumeana). No attempt has been made to 
enumerate all the indigenous species which were found. In spite of the 
detailed description of the different types, it is still felt that justice has 
not been done to the extreme floristic complexity of the vegetation. 
Seasonal changes of the formation—The aspect of the parang, like 
that of the Bambusa-Parkia forest, changes with the season. During 
the dry one many of the herbs die to the ground and all are much 
reduced in foliage. The trees show the result of drought and drop a 
portion of their foliage. 
As a whole, the transpiration surface is decidedly thinner. While some 
of the trees flower irrespectively of season, yet the reproductive activity 
of a much larger number begins in May and continues through July. 
These three months are distinctly the flowering ones. Vegetative ac- 
*8 Blanco, M., Flora de Filipinas (1845), 292, claims that fossil forms of this 
plant have been found by the natives in voleanic rocks near Manila. He does not 
state that he has seen these plants himself. Brandis (See Forest Flora of India, 
232) and others claim that it is certainly exotic in India and the Malayian region 
in general, 
